Arrival
by AbbardthePoor
Summary: Strange sightings have been reported all over the Northlands, strange ships and creatures have been spotted off its coasts. Ignored for a simple rumor. The entire North is in for a nasty surprise, for a massive invasion fleet is heading towards them and its leaders are not known for mercy. Will this new threat see old grudges buried or will all fall before this massive army?
1. Shipwrecked

The eastern shores of the Northlands were unforgiving to voyagers, especially during storms. The crew members of the longboat "Icebreaker" learned this lesson the hard way, low visibility and massive waves overturned the vessel and sent its crew into the murky depths of the sea.

As suddenly as it arrived the storm withdrew, leaving the survivors to the sea current, fate would have it that the survivors of this vessel would be the first of their kind to step foot on these shores.

"There would be loot she said, we will be famous she said." These were the loud thoughts of a young raider as he dragged himself onto the sandy beach, splinters and wooden planks that once belonged to a proud long ship were all around him. "I should have joined Ivar's crew." he finally said before turning around to face the sun. Asmund was exhausted, if he had not grabbed the large wooden crate the chainmail and leather armor he wore would have taken him under.

He laid there for what felt like hours, he was suddenly disturbed by a familiar voice "Here's another one chief.", Asmund stood up to face his crew members. There were five of them, he only recognized one his chief Nilfirda Titanborn, a monstrous and bloodthirsty woman. Like her name suggested she was significantly taller then the remnants of her once thirty man crew. "Not dead yet chief." Asmund said through a weak smile, the group didn't hear him or they decided to ignore him.

Nilfrida turned her gaze to a more elderly looking raider "Harald come with me." she commanded " The rest of you find anything useful from the remains and bring them here.". The small group started scavenging the beach that was by now covered with the longboats remains and an occasional motionless body, Asmund found mostly broken weapons and pieces of armor.

He hoped the others had better luck in finding food "Asmund!", the boy turned towards a raider that looked slightly older then him, "Come and help me with this.". Asmund found the raider attempting to open one of the washed up crates, the two men finally managed to open the crate only to find it filled with ruined food.

"Damn it." the raider kicked the lid angrily "Knew I should have joined Ivar.", he stormed off mumbling. After a short walk Asmund found only three usable objects a wooden buckler shield, a bearded ax and a barbute helmet with a visor, all three he took from a dead raider that washed up.

Soon the small group meet again at the designated spot, most of them came wearing more armor then when he first met them. The chief came back with Harald from their reconnaissance "Listen up!" her booming voice immediately silenced the whispers from the scavenging party "It would appear that the sage was correct after all. We have the honor of being the first of our kind to reach these shores and I plan to make the best of it. We are well ahead of the main fleet."

"But, chief there is only six of us." a voice came from the group, "Are you a bunch of spineless children or raiders!" she roared "We came here with one intention and I will be damned if I let that **child** get all the glory. Me and Harald found a river going further in and where there is a river there is a settlement, we are going to follow that river...".

"C..." Before the raider could complain again he was interrupted by her mailed fist sending him to the ground "My nose..." he yelped out covering his bloodied face, "The next person that interrupts me or disobeys me, will get my greataxe embedded into his skull!" she roared making her a fearsome sight "Now what are we gonna do!"

"Follow the river." the group said in an almost perfect unison.

"What will we do if we find any settlements." she grinned.

"Burn them!" the raiders answered this with a bit more enthusiasm.

"Good lads, now follow me." with that the small group went forth following their chief.

* * *

The small peaceful community of mice were still cleaning up after the storm, when one of their fellow mice came rushing into the small village.

"Malcolm!" he wheezed before collapsing from exhaustion, the mice quickly came around him with worried faces "Theodore, calm yourself." an older mouse said helping him stand "What has happened?". "A ship wreck Malcolm." Theodore said after taking a sip of water "At the beach, they might be vermin.", there were loud gasps and mumbles coming from the gathered crowd "Vermin?" Malcolm looked at the young mouse in disbelief "Are you sure child?". There hasn't been a vermin spotted near the hidden community for years.

Theodore took another sip from the cup given to him "Too many weapons to be traders and the survivors are unfriendly looking creatures.", "What do you mean creatures? Weasels? Rats?" a voice came from the back of the crowd "Speak boy!". "That's just it." Theodore said "They don't look like any beast I ever saw, they don't have any fur or even a tail." he continued "Now that I think about it I didn't even see their ears.".

"I knew it he's drunk!" a large mouse said though a laugh, this caused giggles and laughs from the crowd "Am not, I'm telling the truth!" Theodore exclaimed angrly. "Theodore what else can you tell us about these strange beasts." Malcolm said still keeping a serious tone, as a village chief he saw his fair share of drunkards, but he could see that Theodore was anything but drunk and was scared senseless.

Theodore turned to him, he was glad that someone believed him "They are as big as hares, but bulkier. The one leading them is bigger then a badger and..." he was interrupted by Malcolm before he could continue. Malcolm saw that if Theodore continued his rant there would be panic.

"Theodore we will continue this in private." Malcolm said before turning his gaze at the others "In the mean time I want two volunteers to keep watch in the old guard tower, while the rest repair the damage caused by the storm.". The crowd dispersed some with smiling faces confident that Theodore was lying to evade working, while others had very concerned expressions.

The two mice volunteers were a brother and sister, Swiftbelle and her brother Tristan. "Don't you fret Malcolm me and sis won't let anyone get past us." Tristan said enthusiastically before heading to the old watch tower at the outskirts of the village, "Swiftbelle," Malcolm called the young mouse maid "I don't want any heroics, if you see anything coming our way tell me immediately.". Swiftbelle nodded before running after her brother "Tristan, wait up.", she climbed after him.

"Malcolm said to warn him at the first sign of trouble." she said, this earned her a loud groan from her brother "Relax Swift, I know what to do. Besides we are not that lucky.". Swiftbelle was shocked to hear this "Lucky? Tristan if the vermin find us they will attack the village for sure.", "Come on, we can easily fend them off, they just been through a shipwreck. You get your excitement from reading books, but I refuse to spend the rest of my life in this secluded boring village.".

Swift knew this rant well, he was going to start talking about how he will run away and become a great warrior. She had no intention to spend her time listening to him talk about his fantasies "Wait here, I'm going to go get my books and a lantern." she climbed out of the tower and rushed towards their home, they were both unaware that they were being watched by hidden raiders with twisted smiles on their faces.

"This is gonna be fun."

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Hello, I hope you enjoyed my first Redwall fanfic.**

 **As most of you figured out, the raiders are humans that never even saw an animal like a mouse or badger, the world of Redwall is completely alien to them. These humans are also not us in terms of advancements (they still use early medieval weapons and are very superstitious when it comes to their gods), they will also be a mix of different human cultures (Vikings, Celtic, Saxons, Franks...). **

**Worry not I have zero intentions to make this a story about how humans are OP.**

 **Now that the humans are out of the way I intend to make a lot of grey characters or vermin/baddies turned good. So you might see rats heroically saving mouse maids from berserk raiders.**

 **So some brief character notes in order of apperance:**

 **Asmund- 18 years old**

 **Nilfrida- early 30s**

 **Harald- late 40s**

 **Malcolm- late 40s**

 **Theodore- 20**

 **Swiftbelle &Tristan- 17 and 18**

 **See you soon.**

 **I own nothing but this story and it's OC's, late Brian Jacques owns the Redwall series and all of their characters.**


	2. Author's Note

**Hello dear readers,**

 **I made this to say that I was not able to update for some time, because of internet problems. I just want to make this small AN to tell you that the story is not dead and that the chapters and characters are in the making.**

 **Abbard the Poor**


	3. Night of Tears

"I'm telling you chief." The scout could barely hold his excitement "It's like this village was made to be raided.", the raiders all turned their gazes towards their chief and her right hand man Harald. "Ralof, what are their folk like?" Harald asked, while Nilfrida was deep in thought.

"They look like rats, sort of." Ralof spoke with an unsure voice "They are a lot shorter then the corsairs and not even near as ugly.". The crew looked at Ralof a bit confused, they fought rats and the corsairs before, this would be a difficult fight if they are.

"Are they armed?" Asmund finally broke the silence, to his surprise Ralof laughed "Not a single guard or a wall to stop us, hell their only watchers are a bunch of pups.". This was a morale raiser, Harald could see it in the group, they needed this, this was the only reason why they came to this strange land. "Chief what are your orders?" Harald turned to Nilfrida, only to find her with a strange grin on her face "This is too much to be a coincidence.".

"Chief?" Asmund repeated the question "Do we raid?", she looked at the crew with a wild smile "We won't just raid, we will take the settlement. We will secure a beachhead for the rest of our countrymen.". The crew cheered at the potential prospect of loot and glory, Asmund observed that only Harald had a somewhat worried expression. "Think about it, if only six of us manage to take that settlement." she continued her rant encouraging her crew members "Every man woman and child will know who we were and what we did here tonight. Will you let them remember you as the warriors who were beaten by defenseless farmers?!"

"No!" the crew roared weapons unsheathed

"Well then that's good to hear isn't it." she said ax in hand and went forth "Now come with me and lets make history!", the small group went after her encouraged and bloodthirsty, determined take that village or die trying.

* * *

 _"Find your sister and mother!" a figure of a much older mouse dragged him out of a burning house "Get them out of here!", there was screaming, swords clashing and homes burning. These figures and structures seemed so distant, but it was all around him and he could hear them all perfectly. Three rats stood out, their faces twisted and their smiles filled with sharp teeth "Tristan!" the armed mouse shouted at him "For once in your life listen to me boy! Find your sister and keep her safe!", Tristan ran through burning buildings and blood soaked streets of his former home. The more he ran the louder the sounds of battle became and the smell of death became so strong that made it unbearable to breathe._

 _The rats and defenders ignored him as if he was a ghost, that is when he saw them in a field far from the burning village. He approached the two figures, a mousemaid laid in a small pool of blood around her and an arrow in her back, while a small mouse dibbun kept yanking at her arm "Wake up mama! The rats will eat us here!". "Why won't she wake up Tristan!" the dibbun looked at him with tears running down her cheek, before he could answer he was violently turned around to see his sister with a blood stained face "Wake up!"._

Tristan jolted upwards with a terrified expression, he was met by a worried gaze from his sister "Was it the dream again?" she asked "It's getting worse. You need to talk to someone, whatever happened there i..." she was interrupted by her brother snapping back "Talking won't bring anyone back and I'm fine.". He took a moment to get his bearings "It's only a bad dream, it can't harm me." he looked up surprised that the night was already falling "This cold will do us more harm then my dreams.".

"I'l go get some torches and lanterns." Swiftbelle said placing her book down, Tristan only nodded in agreement and turned his gaze at the forest below them. He suddenly heard a very loud thud below him "Swiftbelle?" he asked, he felt a sharp pain in his head and all went black.

* * *

Swiftbelle woke up tied securely to a tree "Look who woke up." one of her attackers said in a gruff voice "At least you didn't kill this one Ralof.". "He ain't dead Asmund, I just knocked him out." Ralof said in an annoyed tone "I told you to give me a small rock not a bloody boulder you found."

"Shut up both of you." A massive figure came forth, Swiftbelle was to terrified to even let out a sound, she never saw these creatures before. "Now little pup." Nilfirda said with a warm smile "Why don't you tell us a little bit about your village.", Swiftbelle just stared back at the raider. "If you don't tell us," Nilfrida continued now dangerously close to the mousemaids face "me and the lads might take our frustrations out on your little friend up there.".

Swiftbelle's eyes went wide, these monsters were trying to make her choose, "What's stopping you from killing us later?" Swiftbelle said with newfound courage. Nilfrida was taken back by the question "Well, nothing really." she said "Maybe I will let you live or maybe I will kill you both, but if you don't talk I will kill you definitely and I will make sure it's slow an painful."

After a short silence Swiftbelle broke "What do you want to know?" tears were forming in her eyes. "Good girl." Nilfrida said still keeping her warm smile.

* * *

The group of raiders left the tied mousemaid back at the watchtower and now they were ready to attack with the newfound information. "We don't have the numbers." Nilfrida said whispering to her group "But we know that these beasts are not warriors, all we need to do is scare them into submission.".

"Chief what will we do once we take it?" Asmund asked knowing that the residents will revolt as soon as they discover their numerical advantage, "We will await for the rest of our kinsmen." Nilfrida said confidently "We can expect their support tomorrow or even sooner, if the winds are good."

"So how do we take it?" Ralof asked, "Nilfrida and me will make our way towards the center," Harald said "while the rest of you will clear out houses. Kill anything in your path and burn them down if you can."

The raiders descended on the sleeping community in a wedge formation, weapons in hand. Asmund took a house to the right of him and smashed the door open, when the screams started erupting from the households his mind went blank only one thought was in his head kill. Two mice stood before him terrefied, the older mouse pushed his daughter away "Autumn get back.".

There was a wide predatory grin on Asmund's face when he saw a large knife near the older looking mouse "Grab it." he whispered to himself "Grab it, make it fun.", he was slowly becoming enraged. Finally the older mouse made his dash for the knife, just as he grabbed the hilt Asmund brought his ax down upon his paw severing it and released a bestial war cry. There was a loud cry from both mice "Father!" the brown furred mousemaid lunged at Asmund only to be sent flying outside her home by his punch.

She rose from the mud to find homes burning and screams mixed with war cry echo through the village "Now this isn't a place for a pretty little dove." she turned to see Asmund covered in blood and the lifeless body of her father behind him. Before Asmund could bring his ax down he was taken down by a chubby looking mouse "Autumn run!". As she ran she heard her saviors blood curdling scream.

Autumn ran for the woods past the already burning homes and the lifeless bodies of beasts in the mud, "What am I doing?" she thought to herself "Surviving." she assured herself. She suddenly stopped when she caught something in the corner of her eye, it was Swiftbelle tied up and bruised, Autumn rushed to her friends aid, she wasn't gonna let another beast die for her. Autumn quickly started chewing on the ropes, Swiftbelle was also waking up but slowly "A-Autumn..." she was badly bruised "Where...is...", finally the ropes gave away and Autumn helped her friend stand "Save your strength Switfbelle, we need to get out of here.".

Suddenly Swiftbelles eyes became wide with fear when she saw a familiar figure behind Autumn and with a last of her strength she pushed Autumn to the ground, but it was too late to save herself. Autumn was on the ground looking at Swiftbelle, terrified and tears in her eyes. Swiftbelle felt a warm feeling on her torso before she fell down hard "Cold..." she thought to herself "Why is it so c...".

Autumn looked at the lifeless body of Swiftbelle, she turned to find Asmund leaving the shadows "I have to thank you pretty dove." he said playfully "Thanks to you I managed to kill three beasts tonight, but I'm afraid our little game has to end here.". Asmund unsheathed his ax and charged only to be suddenly pushed back yet again by an unknown assailant "Can't a raider get an uninterrupted kill here." he said annoyed and faced his attacker, it was a small familiar mouse, "You should have stayed on that guard tower mouse, but if you seek death I will give it to you."

"You killed my sister." The enraged mouse growled charging the raider slashing and stabbing. Asmund blocked his attacks with his buckler, but the mouse was quick on his feet and evaded the raider's deadly ax. "That's right you little brat tire yourself out." Asmund thought to himself still trying to block all the blows directed at him, he could see that the mouse will eventually fall from exhaustion and his armor protected him well enough. This short exchange of blows came to and end when the Tristan's blade broke in two on the strong wooden buckler, Asmund kicked the mouse to the ground and held him down with his boot. "Tell your sister I said hello brat." the raider laughed at the terrified mouse.

Tristan closed his eyes and awaited the the blow, but instead of a blade tearing his skin he heard the raider's painful scream and the pressure on his chest disappeared. He opened his eyes to find Autumn holding a bloody dagger in her paws and the raider on his knees next to him.

"You're..." Tristan did not allow the raider to end his sentence and shoved what was left of his knife into the helmets visor, the raider released another scream and pushed Tristan away from him. Asmund threw away his helm, the left side of his face was covered with his blood "Ragh!" he cried out trying to stop the bleeding. Before Tristan could attack again he heard voices coming towards them, Autumn grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the wounded raider and out of sight "We need to go now!" she yelled out. Tristan followed her with an empty mind "Swiftbelle..." he looked back for the final time, the air was filled with smoke and screams, he knew that combination rather well.

"I failed you all."

He faced forward and followed Autumn into the forest, he will get his revenge, sooner or later.

* * *

 **Finally, I think this chapter was the most difficult to write out of all the drafts I made. (15 rewrites and I still don't like it that much.)**

 **Well I'm back from my break and ready to start posting new chapters.**

 **As always feel free to leave a review.**


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